Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has become the third senior cabinet member to
say they believe the time limit on abortion should be reduced.

Mrs May said it was her "personal view" that the legal limit should be cut from 24 to 20 weeks after the new health secretary Jeremy Hunt said he believed the limit should be halved.

"I think there is scope for some reduction," Mrs May said in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "My personal view is a reduction to 20 weeks. The Government has no plans to replace the limit."

The Home Secretary is the third Conservative member of the Cabinet to call for a tightening of abortion laws in recent days.

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, has called for a cut to 12 weeks.

"It’s just my view about that incredibly difficult question about the moment that we should deem life to start," Mr Hunt said. "I don’t think the reason I have that view is for religious reasons.”

Earlier in the week, Maria Miller, the recently appointed Culture Secretary and women's minister, said it was "common sense" to lower the legal limit at which a pregnancy can be terminated in order to "reflect the way science has moved on".

Advances in medical science have made it possible for premature babies born as early as 24 weeks to be treated by doctors.

This has led some people to question whether it is right that women can terminate a pregnancy at a time when their offspring could be treated by doctors if they were not aborted.

The issue divides many MPs on the Government's backbenches. One of the Tories calling most strongly for a reduction is Nadine Dorries, who has said that the current 24-week limit ignored "the number of women who are traumatised and vulnerable during the abortion process".

Before he became Prime Minister, David Cameron also suggested that the time limit could be reduced to "22 or 20 weeks".

But Downing Street has said there are no plans to change the current limit.

Darinka Aleksic, campaign co-ordinator at Abortion Rights, said the comments by such prominent members of the government placed further strain on women who were already going through a difficult time.

She said: "Right now, groups opposed to abortion are picketing clinics around the country with the aim of deterring women from having abortions, while in Northern Ireland abortion remains virtually illegal and women can face life imprisonment for trying to obtain one.

"So the fact that one of Jeremy Hunt's first statements as Health Secretary is to call for further restrictions to abortion access is an absolute disgrace.

"Instead of trying to make political capital out of this issue, the Government needs to take action to ensure that women seeking access to abortion can do so in privacy and safety."